Spirits
by Alatus
Summary: Ever since Korra got back from the South Pole she's been able to see these… things. Spirits? Ghosts? All she wants is for them to go away. Too bad for the one that decided to do the backstroke in her dinner. One Shot. R&R!


**Disclaimer: **I woefully do not own/ hold the rights to Legend of Korra.

**AN: **The idea for this lovely little one shot struck me late one night (as some portion of my inspiration seems to do) but also right after having watched the season finale of Legend of Korra. Of course the second season looks like its going to be playing with the spirit world and I thought it would be neat if Asami had spirit sight like Iroh from 'Avatar: the Last Airbender' did.

Reviews are welcome and I hope you enjoy!

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Ever since she returned from the South Pole, she'd been seeing these… _things_. Little creatures, ghost like and quite obviously invisible to everyone else. They were _everywhere_ in the city. She'd been doing her best not to freak, doing her best to act like there was nothing out of the ordinary, doing her best to pretend that she was not seeing these _things_ everywhere she went and for a while it worked.

Until after practice one day, one of the littler _things_ decided to do the backstroke in her miso.

She had most definitely _not_ made a scene. She had most assuredly _not _given an undignified yell. She had most certainly _not _flung the bowl away across the restaurant with airbending, before fleeing the establishment.

Korra buried her face in her hands. "Idiot," she muttered, feeling the heat of embarrassment still staining her cheeks. She slumped down on the edge of the curve, not caring where she was.

That changed a moment later, when a tentative voice called out her name. "Korra?" She grimaced not wanting to look. Footsteps echoed off the stone sidewalk, announcing the arrival of one of her friends. They stopped right beside her. "Are you okay?"

She thought of several different answers, before finally admitting from behind her hands that were still blocking out the world, "no."

There was a pause of silence, before the person shifted, coming to sit on the edge of the sidewalk beside her. "What's wrong?" But Korra could only shake her head, the words too clogged up in her throat. A soft sigh. "You know, we're all worried about you. You've been acting funny since you got back."

Korra's shoulders slumped. "You can tell?"

A soft breath. "It's kinda hard not to notice." A hand lightly pressed against her back. "What's wrong?"

A defensive "Nothing!" immediately tumbled from her lips.

"Riiiiiight, and you normally send food flying like that." There was another pause, longer this time. A defeated sigh. "If you don't want to talk to me, I can go get one of the guys–"

"No," Korra put in quickly. "It's not…" she trailed out, pressing her hands more tightly over her eyes.

"What? Not what, Korra?"

She shook her head. "It's hard to explain."

The hand on her back moved up to her far shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. "You know I'm all ears if you do want to try explaining it." She could almost see the smile on the other's lips. "Seriously, after all the trouble we've been through, it can't be all that bad, right?"

"I wish it were."

"Korra?" she could hear the genuine worry in her friend's voice.

She hesitated a moment more before finally speaking. "I've been seeing these _things_, ever since we got back."

"Things?" echoed back her friend.

"I don't know!" Korra shook her head vigorously. "Ghosts maybe? Spirits? They haven't been vicious or anything, but they _won't _go away!" Her shoulders shook. "It's been driving me up the wall."

"And the one doing the back stroke in your dinner was the last straw."

"Yeah…" It was several more minutes before what her friend had said fully sunk in. "Whoa, wait a minute. Asami how did–?" She drew her hands away from her face, staring at her friend.

Asami offered her a weak smile. "It was kinda hard not to notice."

"You! You can–" Korra floundered, flapping her hands about trying to get her point across.

"See them?" offered Asami.

"How?!" exclaimed Korra. "I couldn't until I got my bending back."

Her friend shrugged lightly. "What can I say? I'm actually kind of fond of them. Of course, when I was a child, I use to try and play with them. Learned the hard way not to mess with the ones that had teeth." She gave a playful grimace. "But other than that, don't worry about them."

"But there's so many of them! I just–" She squeezed her eyes shut, not really wanting to admit to weakness. "Why can't they go away?"

"They're spirits Korra, I don't think willing them away would be… a good idea."

"Can't I just pretend?"

A weary sigh. "Like you have been for the last week?" She didn't have a good way of answering that. "Korra, look at me." Reluctantly, she opened her eyes. Asami smiled encouragingly at her. "I know this must be hard to adjust to. My advice, talking about it is better than ignoring it. I'm all ears if you want to, Tenzin probably has some good stories about how his Dad handled it."

Korra let out a wobbly laugh. "Thanks, but I think Avatar Aang took to it like a turtle-duck to water."

"Well, do you know that for sure?" Korra opened her mouth to answer, only to close it again. No, no one had really told her how Avatar Aang had handled spirits to start with.

Slowly she nodded. "I'll do that."

"Good, I'm certain there's got to be a good story or two there, that…. and don't eat them. They cause indigestion."

"What?"

"In my defence, I was quite a curious child. They don't taste terribly good anyway."

Korra shook her head numbly. "I can't believe I'm hearing this."

Asami squeezed her arm comfortingly around her shoulders. "What are friends for? I've got a tonne of other stories if you want to hear them."

Korra only hesitated for a moment. "I'd like that."

Asami smiled, settling herself more comfortably on the curb and as she launched into another tale from her childhood encounters with spirits. Korra couldn't help but relax. She was the Avatar and dealing with spirits was part of the job description. But Asami's calm demeanour while talking about them relieved Korra of a stress she hadn't even realized she'd been carrying. If Asami could joke about them so lightly, then they couldn't all be bad right? And right now, that was exactly what Korra needed.


End file.
